He Turned to His Right and the World Stopped
by pleurocoelus
Summary: In the middle of the Final Battle against Voldemort, Harry Potter is distracted by a beautiful woman with brilliant red hair. An adult-onset Soul Bond story. AU. Oneshot. HPGW H/G Hinny


_Most of the Harry/Ginny Soul Bond stories happen when they're kids. I thought it'd be fun to do one where they first meet and bond as adults._ _I'm playing with a few soul-bond tropes here. After I completed it, I noticed a slight similarity to some of the language found in ch1 of Elemental Harry by hermyd (I recommend it, by the way)._

 _ **Brief Background:**_

 _Harry was brought up by Sirius. He did not attend Hogwarts, but was trained by Sirius, Remus (and eventually Tonks), Kingsley, Mad-Eye, and Dumbledore. He had occasional interactions with various other members of the Order of the Phoenix._

 **o0o0o0o0o0o**

Harry Potter surveyed the chaos of battle that surrounded him. His eye caught on the self-styled Dark Lord, who was standing on an outcropping of rock like a general surveying his troops.

"This is it," Harry mused. "This is the moment. This is why Sirius and Remus spent their lives training me. This is why Moody died. The horcruxes are gone, it's just Tom Riddle now."

Harry strode toward his foe, casually tossing curses at the Death Eaters and blocking theirs with practised ease.

As Harry approached Voldemort, something made him stop. He turned to his right and the world stopped. There, in crystal clarity, was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her brilliant red hair swung and snapped like a raging flame as she fought against the Death Eaters. The world around her faded to a dull grey as his existence changed forever. She was now the centre of the universe.

As though sensing his gaze, the woman turned toward him, her battle abandoned. Without conscious thought, the pair began moving toward each other. Slowly at first, then running, subconsciously dodging the spellfire that filled the battlefield. When they embraced, a wave of golden light spilled forth from them and swept across the battlefield. A shimmering dome of light arose and covered the couple. Within the dome, the couple embraced, unaware of the events happening outside.

Since that fateful day in 1981, Harry's forehead had borne an unusual scar, which was shaped like a lightning bolt. Now, the scar split and a green mist emerged from the newly-opened wound. For a few moments, the scar oozed blood, but then the wound healed itself, leaving only the faintest of scars to mark its location.

Outside the dome of golden light, the combatants stopped and stared at the dome and its occupants.

The calm was broken when Voldemort screamed in rage and strode angrily toward the dome. Spell after spell he cast at the dome, but it would not break: Curses, charms, transfigurations all splashed harmlessly against the golden dome. Killing curses impacted without effect. Cutting and blasting curses, _construction-grade_ demolition curses, spells both dark and light all hit the dome without result.

As the Dark Lord was gathering his strength for another assault, the dome collapsed. There stood Harry Potter, his right hand entwined with the red-haired woman's left. Their wands were held tightly in their free hands. They pointed their wands at the Dark Lord and cast wordlessly. Twin beams of warm white light emerged from their wands and were met with the sickly-green beam of a Killing Curse.

The Dark Lord screamed as the white light began to overpower his Killing Curse. As the white light pushed against the green, Lord Voldemort began to shake. His wand began to buck in his hand and glow a dull red. As the beam of white light slowly, inexorably gained ground against his Killing Curse, Voldemort's wand glowed hotter and hotter. Still, he did not relent. The wand began cracking and the beam of white was now less than a metre from the tip of his wand, yet he did not relent.

Suddenly, the beam of white surged forward and impacted Voldemort's Yew wand. The green light of the Killing Curse crackled like lightning over Voldemort's body and the Dark Lord fell down, finally dead.

The assembled Death Eaters suddenly screamed, clutching their Dark Marks. Some tried to apparate away, splinching themselves because of the pain. The others were quickly disarmed, stunned, and bound.

Harry Potter and the redheaded woman looked at each other and smiled before lapsing into unconsciousness.

 **o0o0o0o0o0o**

Harry woke to find himself in a bed in Hogwarts' Hospital Wing, a place he had visited a few times. He had barely stirred when he heard a voice.

"Easy there, Harry," said Sirius. "Let me get your glasses."

After the glasses were placed on his face, Harry looked around. There were several people standing at the foot of his bed: Remus and Tonks were there, along with Dumbledore and Madam Pomphrey, who had tended his wounds many times during his training and later battles against the Death Eaters. However, there was one person he didn't recognize, a woman with hair that was a very familiar shade of red. His gaze rested on her and he blinked, trying to place where he might have seen her.

"Harry," Dumbledore said with a smile, "You may remember Molly Weasley. You have met her a time or two during your training."

Suddenly, it clicked. Harry remembered the kind woman who had given him a tin of fudge on more than one birthday.

"Hello, Mrs. Weasley," Harry said, trying to sit up.

Suddenly, Sirius grabbed him.

"Harry," he said, "you shouldn't try to sit up right now."

"Why not? What's wrong?" asked Harry.

Sirius looked him in the eye, then glanced to Harry's right. When he turned, he saw the woman he had seen yesterday. Her brilliant red hair surrounded her beautiful face. With a gasp, the woman woke and Harry found himself staring into the most exquisite pair of chocolate-brown eyes he had ever seen.

"Hi," the woman said to him.

Harry could only gaze, open-mouthed at the beauty of her face until the sound of snapping fingers next to his ear roused him from his reverie. Both Harry and the woman turned to look at Sirius, who had been the one to snap.

"Welcome back," said Sirius. "If you hadn't responded, Madam Pomphrey was about to break out the smelling salts. I wanted to hit you with an _Aguamenti_ charm, but she vetoed that."

Simultaneously realizing that they were sharing a hospital bed, both Harry and the woman blushed fiercely.

"I suppose introductions are in order, then," said Sirius. "Harry, meet Mrs. Weasley's daughter Ginny. Ginny, meet Harry Potter."

Still embarrassed at sharing a hospital bed, the two tried to move apart, but found their hands were clasped together and would not separate.

"After you defeated Voldemort," Dumbledore said, "the two of you collapsed and we brought you here."

"Wait," interrupted Harry, "I don't remember any of that."

"I'm not surprised," said Dumbledore. "The two of you were too enthralled with each other to notice anything else. Nevertheless, you did defeat him, by your combined efforts. Your hands were clasped the whole time, even after you lost consciousness.

"When we attempted to separate you to transport you both here, you both began convulsing. When we returned your hands to each other, the convulsions stopped. It was then that we decided to place a sticking charm on your hands to prevent a reoccurrence."

"Have you figured out what's wrong with us?" asked Ginny.

The small crowd at the foot of the bed all turned and looked at Dumbledore.

"It seems," Dumbledore said, "that I am elected to give the explanation. The two of you have formed a type of soul bond."

"That can't be right," Ginny interjected. "Soul bonds happen spontaneously only after years of marriage. Either that, or they can be created through special rites. They don't just _spontaneously_ happen to random people."

"Ah," said Dumbledore, "they do, but not frequently. Indeed, the last recorded spontaneously-formed soul bonding of an unwed couple occurred more than four hundred years ago. Moreover, due to the association of soul bondings with matrimony, it seems that the two of you are now legally, as well as magically, married."

Harry and Ginny looked at each other, then at the venerable Headmaster.

"Married?" they simultaneously exclaimed.

 **o0o0o0o0o0o**

 ** _A/N:_**

 _That's all. I have no plans to write more on this. I'm just trying to satisfy the muse. The idea of an adult-onset Harry/Ginny soul bond story has intrigued me for some time and there are precious few of them out there._

 _This story was originally posted at SIYE and is crossposted at AO3 as well._

 _Thanks for reading!_


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